It is oftentimes necessary, or at least desirable, to provide an anesthetic to a patient prior to performing at least some types of dental work on that patient. In the past, such anesthesia has commonly been accomplished by use of a local anesthetic injected through a needle inserted to, or adjacent to the gum of the patient.
More recently, electronic stimulation has been suggested for use in providing dental anesthesia (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,733), and it has been suggested that the intensity of application of such electrical stimulation can be remotely controlled by the patient (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,257).
It is felt, however, that further improvement in dental anesthesia apparatus could be effectively utilized.